In areas which receive significant amounts of snowfall, many owners of light trucks or pickup trucks, jeeps, etc., mount snowplow equipment on the front of their vehicles. In order to mount the snowplow equipment on a vehicle, and in particular the blade used for clearing away snow, a blade mounting device must be mounted on the frame of the vehicle adjacent to its front end. However, in order to properly install the mounting device on the frame, the front bumper of the vehicle must be removed. After installation of the mounting device, the front bumper is replaced and the blade then is mounted on the device.
Most vehicle bumpers are one-piece members and are replaced as such after installation of a blade mounting device on a vehicle. However, the outer portions of such remounted bumpers are spaced approximately six inches from the vehicle frame since the center portion of the bumper is prevented from being placed in abutment with the frame by the blade mounting device. Therefore, spacers must be placed between the outer bumper portions and the frame to securely mount the bumper on the vehicle. This manner of remounting a bumper after installation of a blade mounting device on a vehicle detracts from the aesthetic appearance of the vehicle due to the large spacing between the outer portions of the bumper and the vehicle body. Moreover, the vehicle length is increased thereby reducing the turning clearance for the vehicle which can prevent the use of certain parking spaces, etc.
Thus, the present practice of many vehicle owners is to remove the mounting device and blade at the end of each winter which, while solving the above-described problems, necessitates complete reinstallation of this equipment the following year, which is time-consuming and costly. However, such an inconvenience presently is more desirable to many vehicle owners from both an appearance and a practical standpoint than leaving the blade mounting device on the vehicle with the bumper sticking out so far.
The closest known prior art to the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,481,966; 1,482,226 and 2,954,256. These patents show various means for fastening a pair of outer bumper sections to a center bumper section. However, my bumper mounting assembly, which provides for fastening a pair of outer bumper sections to a center bumper section in an offset relationship so that the outer bumper sections abut the vehicle frame when a snowplow blade mounting device is mounted on the frame, is not shown. The known prior art also includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,410,008; 4,236,329 and 4,304,056. These patents merely disclose means for mounting snowplow equipment on a vehicle, and are of general interest to the bumper mounting assembly of the present invention.
Therefore, the need exists for a bumper mounting assembly which securely mounts the outer portions of a bumper substantially in abutment with a vehicle frame when a snowplow blade mounting device is mounted on the frame.